IBS Journal March 2017
49
In 2017, it plans to take on new areas of personal finance and launch in Australia and Canada. With the recent acquisition of Zenbanx, the company plans to introduce a suite of mobile deposit, credit, and payment products to its members in the US this year.
10,000… German digital-only bank, N26 (formerly Number26), has picked up 10,000 customers in Ireland, of
which about 10% are using its new subscription-based premium current account, N26 Black. The challenger launched in the country in December 2015, providing a free mobile app-based current account, after receiving a banking licence from the German regulator BaFin and the European Central Bank (ECB).
$28 MILLION…US FinTech, Nymbus, has landed $16 million in a funding round led by Netherlands- headquartered consumer finance provider, Home Credit Group. This follows on from a $12 million round six months ago.
The venture has over 45 customers, acquired from recent acquisitions, that are in the process of converting to its SmartCore core banking platform, with three on track to go live in Q1 2017. “Tens of thousands of banks and credit unions are not capitalising on strategic growth opportunities due to outdated legacy core technology,” says Scott Killoh, Executive Chairman at Nymbus. “This round of funding will allow us to strengthen our focused efforts around helping customers implement more efficient operations, more modern digital experiences and, ultimately, achieve greater growth.”
19 MILLION…There is still some significant divergence in what digital banking means—or looks like—
across continents, according to Angelo Manos, General Manager, Specialised Segments, ANZ. In a post on the bank’s BlueNotes website, he talks about conclusions reached after recent visits to Sibos and the G-20Y summit in 2016: “Market analysts in Australia sometimes focus on digital developments from the perspective of understanding how listed banks are progressing on achieving cost efficiencies or winning customers. Australian banks including ANZ are likely focused on delivering new platforms and digital experiences. In emerging markets, however, my G-20Y peers stressed how banks were looking to leverage mobile and Wi-Fi technologies in order to completely bypass the need to roll-out physical branch networks.”
In markets such as Turkey, Bangladesh or Kenya, for example, banking service delivery across relatively massive populations of mobile phone subscribers is the ‘killer app.’ The fundamental transition seen in Australia over 20 years, from passbook account to mobile/digital banking, is being skipped. “Technology is helping achieve financial inclusion in markets such as Kenya where large populations of lower income consumers (60% live on less than $US2.40 per day) have affordable access to mobile phone accounts and mobile banking platforms for domestic transfers, payment to merchants, savings and loans, and management of bank accounts.”
Kenya’s Equity Bank has launched its Equitel mobile banking platform in response to the telecom-led M-PESA platform which has 19 million users transacting the equivalent of around US$150 million per day. At the same time, others suggested some customer segments—including even some of the G-20Y attendees—in established markets remain much more reluctant to embrace online let alone mobile/digital banking. “I can’t help thinking Australian banks have been making relatively greater inroads into digital banking than typically believed. Still, my takeway was, as Australian banks have done historically with platforms from EFTPOS to Apple Pay the sector must rise to the digital challenge and invest in new technologies, customers—and bankers—are demanding. Not to do so invites more than FOBOL (fear of being offline),” says Manos.
www.ibsintelligence.com
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